The present invention relates to bails made from tape for suspending containers from an overhead support.
Containers of fluid adapted to be fed intravenously into a patient have conventionally been provided by drug companies with bails attached adjacent their ends opposite the opening for the container so that the containers can be suspended with the container's opening down to allow fluid from the containers to be drained from the containers into patients through intravenous administration sets.
Typically the bails on such containers have consisted of an arcuate length of metal wire attached to the container at its ends by a metal band extending around the bottle and received in a groove around the bottle to restrict movement of the band axially of the bottle.
Such bails have been expensive to provide for several reasons, including the need to form bottles with a groove adapted to receive the band, and the need for hand labor to apply the bail and band assemblies to the containers.
Also, containers fitted with metal bails and bands must be hand inserted into cases in which they are shipped due to a tendency for the bails to catch on the cases; and the metal bails can rust, have a tendency to damage labels on the bottles to which they are attached, and have a tendency to engage bails on adjacent bottles stored on a shelf so that two bottles may be pulled from a storage shelf when only one was intended.
Thus the use of bails made of tape has been proposed in the past; however, heretofore such bails have not been commercially acceptable because they have not both provided the appropriate physical properties to ensure that the bails will not break or separate from the container at their adhesive bond under handling conditions which the suspended bottle may encounter (such as when a suspended bottle is dropped and then stopped via the bail as when a portable cart on which it is suspended drops over a ledge) while still being sufficiently thin and flexible to afford ease of packing the container to which they are attached.